Vacuum-tube.



D. MoP. MOORE.

VACUUM TUBE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.17,191 0.

Patented Feb. 14

Inventor:

- operating position slnce, otherwise,

DANIEL MGFARLAN MOORE, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW

JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO MOORE ELECTRICAL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

VACUUM-TUBE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented rep. ML, ieii.

Application filed March 17, 1910. Serial No. 549,970.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL MCFARLAN Moonn, a citizen of the United States, and resident of East Orange, New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Vacuum-Tubes, of which the following is a specification.

My present" invention solves the problem and meets the demand for a vacuum tube lighting apparatus which can be constructed and evacuated at the factory and shipped like any ordinary article of merchandise ready for operation upon its arrival at destination by merely connecting it with the current source.

Heretofore it has been necessary to construct vacuum tube lighting apparatus at the premises where it is intended to be used and to evacuate it there; or it has been necessary if the'apparatus were factory constructed and evacuated, or to carry it to the place of installation under a supervisors care to keep the apparatus at all times in its the gas feeding valvewould unseal the vacuum and the apparatus would-arrive with the vacuum in the tube vitiated, and the apparatus worthless until reexhausted. These difliculties have obviously made it impracticable to install vacuum tube lighting apparatus of the character above described except in locations near the factory My present improvements now for the first time make it possible to ship vacuum tube lighting apparatus from the factory as an ordinary article of merchandise ready for operation and which will arrive at its destination wherever that may be ready for immediate use.

My improvements comprise a gas feeding valve which is an improvement upon the valve of my United States Letters Patent, No. 820,364, and which has the marked ad'- vantage' above referred to, that the apparatus embodying the improved valve may be shipped Without loss of vacuum,' whereas the valve of my earlier patent seals the vacuum only when the apparatus is maintained in its operating position.

Another feature of m present improvements is the conformation of the vacuum tube and the adaptation of the tube to the operating mechanism to make up a lamp will appear from the annexed which is a compact unit as easily handled and installed as an ordinary arc lamp.

The precise nature of my im rovement escription only one and; drawings, wherein, however,

improvement may of the forms which my take, is shown; Y

In the drawings, Figure -1 is a front elevation partly in vertical section of a portable apparatus within my invention; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section partly in elevation on the line 2-2 in Fig. 1 looking in the di-' rection of the arrows; Fig. 3 is the same on the line 3-3 in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the valve and related parts detached; and Fig. 5 shows a portion of said valve in horizontal position to illustrate how it seals the vacuum.

I will now describe the devices of the drawings, reserving it to the claims to point out the novel features and to indicate scope of the invention, "it being understood that the claims will be given due range of equivalents.

Referring to Fi 1 it will be seen that the apparatus there s own has all of the compactness and portable character of the ordinary swinging are light. 1 and 2 are a pair of disks secured together by spaced apart central strips 3 so as to make of the whole a sort of spool. Supported on the upper disk 1 is a transformer? which may be of any suitable construction, that shown being of the shell-type with closed magnetic circuit 5 and its primary winding located at 6 and its secondary at 7 The transformer and the above referred to spool are surrounded by a cylindrical housing or housings 8 which serve toinclose and protect the operating parts of the lamp.

9 is a cover secured over thetop of the housing and having an eye 10 for suspending the lamp, and insulating bushing 11 through which pass the leads 12.

14 designates the vacuum tube, the midd lo portion of which is bent upon itselfso as to form a series of vertical lengths 14 joined by connecting loops 14 and 14. The.

particular conformation shown provides sin upright lengths points of a hexagon (compare Fig. 3). The bottom cross-loop 14 is at approximately the center of the tube and, as wilt later be of tube disposed at the.

seen, is the point at which the valve con nects with the tube. The tube is supported vertically under the housing 'with its free ends projecting up through the disk 2 into the spool space within the housing. The vacuum tube is supported in this position from a vertical metal tube 15 which in turn is supported from the lower disk 2 bybeing tapped into a central opening therein.

16 designates a pair of disks having hubs 17 provided with set screws for securing them on the metal tube 15. The vertical lengths of the vacuum tube are adjacent to the periphery of these disks 16 and are secured thereto by bands or straps 19.

20 is a-glass tube located within the metal tube 15 and connec'tin at its lower end with the middle loop 14 0 the vacuum tube and supporting at its upper end my improved valve which is located within the housing. The detailed construction of this valve is shown in the enlarged view Fig. 4. .It will be seen that the upper end of the connecting tube 20 is provided with a plug 21. This may be of carbon or other suitable porous material. The stem of the plug is cemented or otherwise secured in the mouth of the tube so that gases must pass through the pores of the plug and cannot leak around it. 22 is a chamber springing from the tube below its plug-end and having a constricted neck 23 located preferablyimmediately over and in close proximity with the head of the plug 21. This constricted neck then widens into the vertical tube 24 forming the upper part of the. valve. 25 is another plu of carbon or other suitable porous materia located within the u per tube and having its lower end cemente in the opening through the constricted neck. Both plugs may e hollow as shown. The chamber 22 is filled with mercury or other suitable liquid 26 so that when the valve is in its preferred oper- 28 is a tube within the upper tube with.

' its lower end surrounding the (plug 25 and dipping into the mercury, sai being freely movable up and down and carrying in its upper end the usual lami-..

nated armature or movable core 29 consisting of a bundle of iron wires as usual in the art.

surrounding the upper inner tube' neleted acrossthe electrodes of the 'vacuum tu e.

The operation is as follows: The lamp having been connected with a suitable current source, the vacuum tube will light up, but, after an interval due.to the passage of the current, its vacuum will become higher which by lowering the resistance of the tube will cause more current to pass-through it and also through the primary of the transformer and the solenoid 30. This will cause the solenoid to lift the armature tube 28 more or less from the mercury 27 and will cause the level of the mercury to fall until it exposes the tip ofthe carbon plug25.

In the particular valve shown, the upper end'of the vertical tube 24 is shown open to the air. The lamp may be so operated or said tube may be in communication with a generator or reservoir of any other gas or gases, suitable or desired. In any event, when the tip of thecarbon plug is exposed, the air or gas will pass through theplug into the chamber 22 and thence through the lower plug 21 down the connecting tube 20 into the vacuum tube. After the vacuum has been slightly lowered in this way, its electrical resistance'will rise, cutting down the currentin the solenoid, thereby letting the armature tube 28 lower into the mercury, whose level rises and completely submerges the carbon plug 25. This stopsfurther inagain rises and the tube calls for more gas.

In short, the above is substantially the operationof the valve of my referred to Patent No. 820,364.

The reat advantage of my present valve comes 1n whenslthe lam is tilted, as, for example when being shippe on its side. Thus, in shipping, the mouth of the upper tube 24 will be closed by any suitable form of closure to prevent its body of mercury from running out. Fig. 5 shows the supposed condition of the valve parts when the lamp is on its side. At such time, the upper carbon plug 25 will not be covered by the mercury so that were it not for the present improvement, gas from the tube 24 wouldpass through t e unsubmerged upper plug into the vacuum tube and would so vitiate its vacuum as to require rexhausting when the tube arrived at its destination. This, however, cannot happen with the improved valve because the mercury in the receptacle 22 as indicated in Fig. 5 will completely submerge the plug 21 when the lamp is on its side and will prevent any gas from passing through it into the vacuum tube in spite of the fact that the upper plug 25 may be fully exposed as shown in Fig. 5.

Preferably the space between the plugs 21 and 23 should be as small as possible-since the gas which it confines sooner or later finds its'way into the vacuum when the apparatus tion.

4 into the position of Fig. 5, the mercury 26 preferably fully covers the plug 21 before the mercury 27 uncovers the plug 25.

, This is the case with the particular construction shown.

What I claim is e a P 1'. In combination avacuum tube having an orifice; means operable from the position of the tube which leaves'ithe orifice open in a given position of the ,tubeiand which seals it in other positions; and gas-feeding means delivering gas to the tube through said orifice.

- 2. In combination a vacuum tube having an orifice, a valve which in the intended position of use of the tube normally seals the orifice, but which is operable to unseal it; and means which seals theorifice in all, positions except said intended position of use of the tube.

- 3; In combination a vacuum tube having a minute orifice impassable to liquid, but pass-, able to gas; and means for controlling the orifice operable from the position of the tube,said means leaving the orifice open for the intended position of use of the tube and otherwise closing it.

4. In combination a vacuum tube having an orifice; means controlling the orifice operable from the position of the tube, said means leaving the orifice, open when the vacuum tube is in'its intended position of use and keeping it closed in ,other positions; and a valve operable to admit gas to the orifice, said valve having a normal unoperated position that closes the orifice when the tube is in its intended position of use. I

5. The combination of a vacuum tube with gas-feeding means operable to feed gas to the tube in a given position of the tube, and

which prevents feed of the gas in other positions of the tubel 6. The combination of a vacuum tube with gas-feeding means operable to feed gas to the tube when it is'in its intended position of use, and which prevents feed of gas in other positions of the tube.

7. The combination of a vacuum tube with gas-feeding means which is operable to feed gas to the tube only in the intendedposi tion of use of the tube, and which prevents the feed in other positions, and which even in the intended position of the tube is normally non-feeding until operated.

8. The combination of a vacuum tube; means for feeding gas to the tube; and

means operated from the position of the tube which seals the tube from the gas-feeding means except whenthe tube is in its intended position of use.

. 9. The combination of a Vacuum tube hav- 7 ing an orifice, porous material obstructing .the orifice, a liquid supported at the porous material which submerges it except when the tube is in its intended position of use and means controlling the intake of gas through said orifice.

10. The combination of a vacuum tube having an orifice, porous material obstructing the orifice, anda liquid supported at the porous material which submerges it except when the tube is in its intended position of use, and a valve controlling the intake of gas through the orifice into the tube comprising a porous material obstructing the orifice, a liquid supported at the material, and means for varying the extent of contact between the liquid and the porous material.

11. The combination of a vacuum tube; a chamber partially filled with liquid havg ing a porous inlet and a porous outlet the latter leading to the vacuum tube, the po; ous inlet-and outlet being both unsubmergeq. by the liquid for'one position of thechamtber and at least one of them being submerged for other positions of the chamber.

12. The combination of a vacuum tull e; a chamber partially filled with liquid ha ving an upper and a lower opening, one )f which is connected with thevacuum tube; and porous bodies obstructing said openings, that of the lower opening being locate above thebot-tom of the chamber in proxim ity to the upper porous body and projecting above the level of the liquid, when the chamber is held so that the upper opening is over the lower opening. r

13. A portable vacuum tube lighting a'p paratus comprising a vacuum tube the middle portion of which is bent upon itself to l give vertical lengths of tube joined by connecting loops, the intermediate connecting loop being a cross loop at approximately the center of the tube, a vertical gas feed tube joined to said cross loop and around which said vertical lengths of vacuum tube are disposed and a frame supporting said vcrtical lengths .of tube-and having a vertical metal tube within which the said gas feed tube is located. i Witness myhand this 16th day of March,

1910, at New York city, N.

DANIEL McFARLAN Moons. 

